The Price of a Watch
What was his name again? You know, that good-looking kid who became a hot topic in Tail episode 1.
The one in the yellow hat everyone said was Lee Jeonghyeon's son, yeah.
His lines were 90% ad-libs, so there was a whole debate over whether it was real or just 'bluffing,' right? lol Can't remember.
Anyone know what he's doing these days? Suddenly curious.
Last mention was on Lee Jeonghyeon's live stream, was it?
Apparently he's joining a drama as a child actor, but they haven't really talked to him, so they're not sure. Says he's always reading a script during every single break. Anyway, seems like he'll go into acting.
+) Apparently he's just a quiet kid. Says there were some weird rumors about him before, but when I asked what they were, they wouldn't go into detail. No idea what's true — he kept a low profile at school, but after the drama aired things went nuts and now all the girls ever talk about is Lee Yeonjae.
++) Don't know if she's his girlfriend, but there's a pretty girl he hangs out with. Add another good-looking boy on top of that, and the three of them apparently go out together all the time.
“Hoo.”
I lifted my head and wiped the sweat beading at my jaw. It being the height of summer, harsh sunlight had already filled the room even though it was barely seven in the morning. I switched off the phone flashlight I'd kept running since getting out of bed and peeled off my sweat-soaked T-shirt.
I'll come back after school and run through the remaining scenes then.
Today was the summer break closing ceremony. And right after that, tomorrow, came my first shoot. Not the drama's first day of filming — the first shoot of a scene I actually appeared in. I'd heard Han Seyeong and Seong Ijun had already started filming last week. As the day drew closer, the anxiety kept swelling, and in the end I'd chosen to get up at dawn and practice instead of lying awake. Early on, I'd made the mistake of turning on the room light without thinking, and Teacher Lee Sihyun had come pounding on my door with eyes like a startled rabbit — so ever since, I'd used the phone's flash instead.
It seemed like an odd thing to text someone at such an early hour, but I replied obediently that I would. Even on days we weren't meeting, Manager Ahn Jinbae always sent messages of this type in the morning. He seemed to worry it might feel like pressure — the one time I told him he really didn't have to, I saw his thick eyebrows sag in an instant and hurriedly took it back.
If it put his mind at ease, then fine. It wasn't as if receiving a text cost me anything.
“Ah, the watch.”
Yesterday, Manager Ahn had said it would be good for me to own at least one watch and handed me a boxed one, still wrapped. I told him I had my phone and asked him to refund it on the spot; he insisted it wasn't expensive and begged me to just keep it. In the end, after a thirty-minute standoff, he'd wearily told me the price — and only after handing him that much cash did I bring the watch home. The look on his face as he accepted the bills had seemed utterly forlorn... but still, a deal was a deal.
I understood why taking money from a kid felt off to him. But by that logic, wasn't it just as awkward for an actor to be accepting gifts from his manager? If one of us had to be giving presents, it was obviously my job.
I was fastening the sleek black watch around my left wrist when something caught the edge of my vision — a clear glass bottle. Perfume, in a bottle design with étranger written across it in graceful cursive.
I'd received it the very next day after asking Manager Ahn about it. I hadn't so much as opened the lid.
Ha. What on earth was I supposed to do with that.
...School first. Deal with it after I get back.
With effort, I dragged my eyes away from the perfume and left the room.
“Huh? Yeonjae, you bought a watch? It's pretty.”
On the TV mounted to the classroom wall, the principal was in full swing with his opening-day address. Of course, not a single kid was actually listening. The teacher half-dozing at the front desk was no exception.
“Yeah? Thanks.”
“Ooh, look at Lee Yeonjae, buying a watch now~ What's it like? Bi-hyuk wants to see too.”
I gave my thanks to Park Ha-eun, who sat beside me, and Noh Bihyuk turned around at that. Then he declared he'd personally authenticate whether it was genuine and glued himself to the watch so close his nose nearly touched it, so I shoved his face away. Genuine, my foot. It was a 30,000-won watch.
Noh Bihyuk ignored even that and kept staring at nothing but the watch on my wrist. Park Ha-eun whispered beside me that his eyes had rolled back into his head, and that when he got like this it was easier to just hand it over. The stubbornness was no joke, so I finally unclasped the watch and gave it to him. He turned it over front and back — and a question mark bloomed across his face.
“This is 30,000 won? Where do you even buy this for 30,000?”
“My manager hyung picked it out for me. When I asked how much, he said 30,000... isn't that right?”
Mid-sentence, something suddenly felt off. No way.
At my question, Noh Bihyuk froze for a beat, then let out a sheepish chuckle after a short silence. “No, it's probably 30,000. Never seen this brand before, though. I know pretty much everything out there.”
“Really? You've genuinely never seen this brand?”
“Course not~. Wow, your manager hyung has great taste. I'll have to ask him where he shopped when I meet him.”
Noh Bihyuk handed the watch back with an easy laugh. When I looked him in the eye, he glanced away. Seeing the corner of his mouth tremble faintly, I swallowed a sigh.
“Don't worry about it. I'll ask him today.”
“...Okay~, just leave Bi-hyuk's name out of it.”
With those last words, Noh Bihyuk spun right back around. A clean cut — no loose ends.
Ha. If he reacted like that, how much was the thing? How expensive could a watch get? Surely it didn't break 100,000 won?
The tangled train of thought that had carried me all the way to break time came to a dead stop the moment the search results loaded on my phone screen.
“Oh! Yes, Actor-nim! You're at school right now, so—”
“Hyung, are you out of your mind?!”
“...Yes? Wh-why, what—”
“You said this was a 30,000-won watch! I searched the brand name and the cheapest one was 300,000 won!”
“Ah...”
Hearing the voice on the other end drown in bewilderment, I took a deep breath. Right. Calm down. Calm—
“Who spends 300,000 won on a watch? One an elementary schooler is going to wear, no less! I'll admit I don't know anything, but this is too much! What kid gets a gift like this?!”
Calm, my foot. My hands were shaking at the unthinkable sum.
My monthly allowance came to 30,000 won. Three hundred thousand? That was ten months of not spending a single coin.
I had rushed behind the cafeteria building to make the call, but there was no settling down at all, so I just kept circling the spot.
“Actor-nim. First — first of all, please calm down.”
“How am I supposed to calm down when you lied to me, hyung?”
“...! I'm sorry! I was wrong. I wasn't trying to lie... no, you don't want excuses. I'm sorry. Never again—”
“If you say sorry one more time, I'm hanging up.”
“........”
The phone went quiet at once. I lowered it slightly and breathed in deep.
I couldn't remember the last time my emotions had run this hot. But venting like that seemed to have done its work — the trembling that had come with the rush of feeling slowly settled.
I drew another long breath and raised the phone again.
“I know it comes from a good place, hyung. Thank you. But this isn't right. I've never once wished for a watch this expensive. And I didn't even buy it with my own money — receiving something like this from you is even further beyond anything I'd have considered.”
“Yes. Actor-nim. I'm sorry— no, yes... I understand. I'm sorry for putting you in a difficult position— no.”
Manager Ahn answered in a flustered, stumbling tone. He said he'd never meant to make things awkward — he'd simply been out shopping with his family, thought the watch would suit me, and bought it on a light impulse. He went on to admit he'd grown up comfortably, so his sense of what counted as a reasonable amount was less developed than most people's, then apologized yet again, insisting he hadn't been trying to show off.
Once the long conversation finally wound down, I was calm enough to answer properly.
“I understand. Thank you. I... ha. I don't have 300,000 won. So I'll gratefully accept this one as a gift. In return, I promise I'll get you something even better someday.”
I'd spent nearly everything I'd saved up buying the perfume. I did have a payment from my drama contract, but every financial matter had been left with the Director. She'd explained she would put it all into a bank account opened in my name, but since she planned to hand every won of it over to me eventually, it wasn't money that meant much to me.
“Yes! Thank you, Actor-nim!”
“...You can thank me when that time actually comes. And from now on — no lying about money. Understood?”
I knew an employer and an employee couldn't always trade nothing but honesty. Most things I could let slide. But money was a different matter.
Manager Ahn looked like he'd been shocked enough that the same thing wouldn't happen twice, but it was still better to say it upfront.
As the conversation settled into some kind of order, I gradually loosened up. Then Manager Ahn failed to answer right away and hesitated for a long moment.
“Actor-nim... actually, there's one more thing I need to tell you...”
“What is it?”
Manager Ahn fumbled his way through the words, halting and stumbling. Listening to that voice shaking with anxiety, I simply closed my eyes.
“That watch... isn't 300,000 won. It's 700,000... won.”
“......”
The ground dropped out from under me.